Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

"No matter what, life is good now, and it's a good thing to be able to survive."

"Indeed...Indeed..."

For most ordinary people, especially the people today, the rise and fall of dynasties is not an issue they consider. Their main concern is how to survive in this chaotic world.

It has to be said that although Jiang Han and his men were subversives of the dynasty and looked like typical traitors, the people were more accepting of them because of their good family background and the appearance of being natives of the Ming Dynasty. To them, it was nothing more than a change of dynasty, and the only real thing was to survive.

If Jiang Han was a Tartar, it would be different. This would not be a matter of dynasty change, but a foreign invasion. The people would absolutely not be able to accept it. It can only be said that although they are both enemies, there would be differences in how they are treated.

When the people heard that the Ming army was coming with 30,000 troops to quell the rebellion, they were generally worried about what to do if the good policies they had now were gone. Now, everyone has land and food, and their lives are much more stable.

The merchants are also more comfortable, and the business situation in the city is now much better than before.

Although they don't want to admit it, this group of rebels obviously know how to govern the people's livelihood better than the Ming Dynasty court. There are no messy taxes, no so-called filial piety, and the taxes that should be collected are clearly told to you, including business tax and property tax. There is nothing else. There will also be no scoundrels who will disturb your business.

The most important thing is that after receiving the money, this group of rebels specially sent a team to clean the streets. They also did some fire prevention and disinfection work around their shops, making the streets around the shops clean. Everyone could see clearly what the money was used for.

As a result, many businessmen immediately began to favor Jiang Han and his colleagues. You have to know that among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants are always the last. Although many of the reasons are because of their own illness, more people do it to support their families. It was not easy to do business in the Ming Dynasty. All kinds of officials took bribes, local officials had huge appetites, and the officials above were not easy to deal with. They seemed to have earned a lot on the surface, but in fact most of it went into the pockets of these masters, and they could only get by by robbing Peter to pay Paul on weekdays.

Now that the taxes are clear, they will be able to get more income. Who would not like that? However, because the Ming army is coming to redress the grievances these days, they are all worried. They don't want this wave of redress to succeed from the bottom of their hearts.

Now that the Ming army has been defeated, everyone no longer has those thoughts in their minds and is no longer entangled. The right thing to do is to seize the time and take advantage of the good wind to do business. Such good days are rare and must be cherished.

Jin Laosan was arranging the fleet in full swing. The reason for his anxiety was that it had been two or three days since Jiang Han handed over this trade route to him to be responsible for it. He had been waiting and watching during this period. If the Ming army came and this group of rebels was defeated, then he, who had helped the rebels to do business, would have to give up all the money he had earned, and the names of his entire family would also have to be implicated.

The previous battle against Team Jiang Han was already a rare gamble he could make. Seeing that the gap in military strength between Ming and Jiang Han was too great, he was unsure and wanted to wait and see.

Now that the news of the army's defeat has come, he knows that he must continue on this path until the end. The treasure he bet on has already proved his value and ability. All he can do now is to continuously increase his chips in order to seize the final moment of making a big profit.

Once you’re at the gambling table, there’s no reason to quit halfway. The winner takes all and the loser loses a lot. It’s that simple.

The transmission of information in the late Ming Dynasty was extremely poor, but the distance between Nanjing and Yangzhou was not far. Within two days, the news had already reached Nanjing city.

Thirty thousand troops were defeated against two thousand and were wiped out. This record was outrageous not only to the people of Yangzhou City, but also to the local people of Nanjing who could not accept it.

There was a huge uproar in the Nanjing court. Everyone had just finished looking for someone to take the blame for the last round, and now they were preparing to look for the second round.

"Is this a record that humans can achieve? To be honest, it's fine to fight the Tartars, but what level are the rebels these days? They are starving like dried ghosts, and can't even hold their swords steadily. Shouldn't you just use your hands to fight them? 30,000 people fighting against 2,000 and getting defeated? The amount of military funds that the imperial court gives you every year is really a waste!"

The civil representatives were the first to launch an attack. They had always thought that these military generals were not good at leading troops, and now they saw that it was true. They had finally caught them.

The military generals also had something to say. It's enough to have hands. Even if you use your hands and feet together, it won't work. If you, the civil officials, hadn't gone wrong and surrendered to the rebels, allowing them to take Yangzhou without bloodshed, this battle would not have started. You can't even defend the city by relying on the city walls, let alone the fact that we were defeated 3-0 in a field battle.

The then Nanjing garrison commander had a stern expression on his face, and was obviously in a bad mood. It was not because he was afraid of being blamed by these people. As one of the only two officials with real power in Nanjing, the Nanjing garrison commander's status was much higher than those old-age freaks and unpopular annoying people. What he was considering now was another matter.

As a first-rank official, and a first-rank official who held real power but was not well-received, the Nanjing garrison was loyal to the Ming Dynasty. The main reason was that he did not look good and was not favored by Chongzhen, so even though he had good abilities, he was exiled outside the political center.

Our crooked-necked emperor hired people at will. He would not hire those who were ugly, had low emotional intelligence, or were not pleasing to the eye. Moreover, due to the difficult situation, he urgently needed talents who could be ready for combat and help him solve problems as soon as they took office, such as the Tartars in the north, the food shortage, or the banditry in the northwest.

But if you make big promises to the emperor, you need to fulfill them later, otherwise it will be a crime of deceiving the emperor. If you don’t have great courage, you would not dare to do such a thing at all. Moreover, since Yuan Chonghuan, Chongzhen’s trust in his ministers’ boasting has been getting lower and lower.

I know the virtues of my own emperor, but what else can I do? He is the emperor, and he still has to do his best for the Ming Dynasty.

With this mentality, what the Nanjing garrison was thinking about at this moment was not how the imperial court would hold them accountable after this defeat, but how did these 30,000 people suffer a defeat?

Everyone knows their own business. As the garrison commander of Nanjing, he has a pretty good idea of ​​his own military strength.

As one of the few prosperous regions in the Ming Dynasty and located in the two capitals, although the combat effectiveness of the Ming army here is not as strong as that of the border troops, it is no exaggeration to say that the soldiers are strong and the horses are powerful. The local people are rich and willing to pay. Even the artillery in the army has a stable supply, unlike Liaodong, which is really poor.

With such a level of artillery and a large number of artillery in the army, they were beaten like this in a field infantry battle. This puzzled him.

He knows the leading general inside and out. Although his level is mediocre, he is decent. Although not outstanding, he will not make mistakes. Since there is no major problem in his command, the problem is most likely with the opponent.

Ignoring the clamor of the court, the garrison commander returned to his own residence and said, "Quickly send someone to collect all the information about the rebels in Yangzhou. Find out everything in detail. I want to know who the leader of this group is."

There are only two reasons why he could defeat 30,000 people. His army was far superior to the Ming Dynasty in terms of firepower and combat capability. But how could this be possible? Even the Portuguese were driven away by the Ming Dynasty, so he was more inclined to the second possibility, that the other general was a very talented person.

To be able to achieve such a record, this bandit leader is definitely not an unknown person. With such a level, why don't you come to serve the country and conquer the Wolf's Lair instead of staying in Yangzhou and becoming a small rebel leader?

Volume 197: Chapter Chapter : The Current Situation of Ming Dynasty

Sugarcane!

When I heard this familiar noise, I knew that Zhenzi was living in Bengbu again.

He felt that the twelfth year of Chongzhen was in conflict with his horoscope. Since the beginning of this year, his blood pressure had been as high as Winston's. It was outrageous. The first thing that happened at the beginning of the year was that the city of Jinan was lost. Not only was it invaded by the Tartars, but those idiots in Shandong also gave away a wave of heads. He hadn't yet digested them all when Yangzhou was lost again.

That would be fine, but when we asked you to send troops to redress the injustice, you were defeated head-on with 30,000 troops against 2,000. Who the hell do you think you are?

Over the years, Zhenzi was forced to gradually move closer to his brother Zuan from being elegant and easy-going. When he was about to take the throne, he was full of confidence. The Emperor Tianqi held his hand and handed the country to him. He also encouraged him, "My brother should be like Yao and Shun." As a result, the Ming Dynasty in his hands was like an old lady celebrating the New Year, and each year was worse than the last. Reality gave him a hard slap in the face, like Garen's Curtain Blade, Silence and breaking the defense.

Just like the old saying goes, do you think you are a good emperor? Zhenzi thinks he is.

I live frugally every day, and the palace is so dilapidated that I don’t even have the money to repair it. This is how you repay me?

He felt like the director of an orphanage, dragging this bunch of good-for-nothings who were only holding back the team.

Chongzhen's understanding of governing a country is similar to that of a certain professional player who emphasizes clear division of blame but avoids talking about himself. He would never say that even if the ministers are responsible for 99%, he should also be responsible for %.

Moreover, there was another thing that made Zhenzi even more helpless at this moment: the Kingdom of Korea was conquered by the Tartars.

Huang Taiji was ambitious and always wanted to rule the Central Plains. However, there were two thorns in the throat of the Later Jin Dynasty, which made it difficult for him to move forward. One was Pi Island and the other was Korea.

Pi Island is located at the hub of the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula. It is an important base for the Ming Dynasty to contain the Later Jin Dynasty. It is like a sharp knife against the back of the Later Jin Dynasty, making it unable to sleep or eat.

Mao Wenlong, the general of Pi Island, led a group of brothers to open up this place. Whenever the Tartars went out to fight, he would lead his men to secretly ride on their faces, build bunkers and slaughter peasants. He was extremely despicable and made the Tartars very disgusted.

But the Tartar's discomfort did not last long and he soon recovered.

The Ming Dynasty destroyed itself. Mao Wenlong, the general of Pi Island, was beheaded by Yuan Chonghuan. His brothers scattered or rebelled. The threat level of Pi Island dropped sharply. Although it was still uncomfortable, the Ming army that landed on the island later obviously did not have enough scum, so it was not a big concern.

The second is North Korea. Today's North Korea is very different from the present. Ever since the Ming Dynasty sent troops to help them solve the crisis of Japanese invasion, they have become Ming Dynasty's die-hard fans, the kind with level 28 badges, who are like brothers who can fly with confidence and follow the dynasty forever, and are extremely loyal to their suzerain country.

Korea and Pi Island were each other's horns, stuck behind the Later Jin, which was very uncomfortable. No matter which side they sent troops to, they would be pulled out by the other side for operations. But now it is different.

Now that you, Mao Wenlong, have been beheaded, the threat from Pi Island has been greatly reduced, and the Later Jin can put its mind at ease and focus on dealing with North Korea.

The Tartars had always been extorting various forms of money from Korea. In the sixth year of Tiancong, the amount of money and property that the Later Jin demanded from Korea increased by about ten times compared to before.

They also used the excuse of mutual trade to force the purchase and sale of Korean goods at low prices, and extorted large amounts of precious goods such as gold, silver, silk, linen, fine cloth, leopard skins, otter skins, etc.

North Korea had long been fed up with this kind of blatant robbery, and the two sides were just short of cursing each other in the face. Now that the northern part of Daimyo had been turned upside down by the Later Jin cavalry, the Later Jin could finally free up its hands to deal with this unfortunate neighbor.

If he wants to move into the Central Plains, he must first remove these two nails. Now that Pi Island is basically in name only, he must start with North Korea and remove the hidden dangers in these two backyards so that he can concentrate on dealing with the Ming Dynasty. The Yalu River is about to freeze over. If he doesn't take action now, when will he take action?

In December, Huang Taiji issued an ultimatum to Korea, demanding that the Korean king send royal children as hostages within a specified time, otherwise he would immediately send troops to attack. However, Korea ignored the threats of the Tartars and said, "I have the Ming Oppa to protect me, who do you think you are?"

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the Mongolian tribes gathered in Shenyang, and on the second day, Huang Taiji ordered troops to be sent to Korea.

After returning to the Later Jin Dynasty, Dorgon, who had made a mistake, was naturally neglected. However, this time he still led the left wing together with Hauge through Kuandian into Changshankou, passing through Changcheng and heading south to Pyongyang.

Huang Taiji and Daishan personally led the right wing and entered Korea via Zhenjiang from the Tokyo Road.

It was not until the main force of the Qing army arrived in Anzhou that the King of Korea learned of the Later Jin's military expedition. At this time, the Qing army was already at the gates of the city. Three hundred Qing soldiers disguised themselves as merchants and sneaked into the Korean capital, Seoul. With the help of both inside and outside forces, the King of Korea fled to ** Island and sought refuge from the Ming army.

But the Qing army learned from their failures. They let you escape the first time, but it would not be so easy for Nicole to slip away the second time. They had long cut off the road from the royal capital to the ** Island. The King of Korea had no choice but to flee to Namhansanseong, which was only 40 miles away from the royal capital. He ordered the soldiers from all regions to come to his aid and sent people to Dengzhou to seek support from the suzerain state.

But the Ming Oppa whom they miss so much can't give them any support except practical help.

Xue Guanguo, the chief minister of the cabinet, explained to Zhenzi: "Our Ming Dynasty is currently in financial difficulties. The Liao tribute has not yet been repaid. We need to suppress bandits in the northwest, and there are uprisings everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River. Yangzhou has been lost again. Now the court is really unable to send troops to aid Korea..."

Zhenzi realized that this was indeed the case. As he was so angry that he smashed tea bowls every day, the money in his inner treasury was very tight. Wars are fought for supplies, but in the current Ming Dynasty, Uzbekistan... No, the supplies are indeed not very good.

Although the Guanning Army was strong in men and horses, they only stayed in the city to defend it and did not dare to take the initiative to attack and contain the enemy. Not to mention Pi Island. The Kingdom of Korea was almost numb to the signals that the enemy had disappeared, and the defenders of Pi Island just rushed into the wild area and watched the entire territory of Korea fall step by step.

The impact of a suzerain state that is unable to protect its vassal states is enormous, and the chain reactions that follow will erupt one by one in the future.

But the court of the Ming Dynasty was still peaceful. The ministers were good at telepathy. They said that the other party had exposed their intentions, and now the Ming Dynasty could have countermeasures. They said that it was very hard to kill people. They were fighting so aggressively now that they would not be able to hold on in the future. They just had to drag it out and wait for the Ming army to get the three-piece set... Zhenzi was fooled by Zhenzi. How could he, an illiterate, understand whether it was hard to kill people or not? He felt guilty for the capture of Korea, but didn't we have any other options at the moment? Just let them bear the grievance. In the future, the Ming Dynasty Oppa will definitely avenge you!

Ah Chao, I have difficulties too, please be understanding and considerate of me!

Everyone's joys and sorrows are different. Jiang Han could not feel Zhenzi's difficulties. At this moment, he was being dragged to watch a show.

Volume 199: Chapter Chapter : Kill the Bandits

Jiang Han's target was not Nanjing, which was relatively close. After gathering an army of 30,000 people and then being completely annihilated, even Nanjing would have to slow down a bit. There was no way to raise another army in a short period of time to continue suppressing bandits.

The generals were clamoring to go to the battlefield, but their opinions did not count. The general opinion in Nanjing was to play it safe first.

Let one chase two, let two chase three, let three chase their dreams.

Now Jiang Han is not the only rebel in Jiangnan, but rebels are everywhere. The peasants here are the type that, in the eyes of Paradox players, have committed heinous crimes: "Even after the tax rate has been raised to ninety-five, you still have the energy to revolt?"

Currently, Jiang Han has nearly 10,000 people working on infrastructure construction. He is very confident in his city defense. Once the bastion is completed, it will be impossible for anyone to threaten his city defense system at this stage.

It is impossible to go north. Nowadays, the fastest route for trade is water, especially maritime trade, which requires ports. So what Jiang Han wants is to go down all the way, first take Zhenjiang Prefecture, then Changzhou Prefecture, and finally take Suzhou, so that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River can be firmly in his hands, and then all of them are covered with bastion defenses. In this way, he will have a very stable trade route and a rear area. What's more, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have abundant water vapor and are a rare place in the Ming Dynasty where crops can be grown. If he doesn't produce here, does he have to go to the northwest where there is only loess left due to drought to see camels grinning?

But it is not so easy to capture these places. The reason is that there are many bandits around them, which is very troublesome.

The Jiangnan region is a prosperous area and is also the favorite place for bandits, because the people here are relatively richer and there are more things they can rob.

Although Jiang Han is also a rebel, he is fundamentally different from these bandits. It is impossible for him to be on the same side as them. The first thing he does after gaining a foothold is to prepare to suppress the bandits.

These bandits were originally a group of refugees who were suffering from heavy taxes and had lost their land. They rebelled against the government just to survive, and there was nothing wrong with that.

But in the second year of Chongzhen, after the Ji Si Rebellion, a large number of deserters from Shanxi, Xuanda and Shaanxi became bandits or joined the bandits, greatly increasing their destructive power. From then on, the bandits began to destroy production on a large scale and plunder local areas. Young and strong women were abducted into the team, and children and the elderly were generally killed on the spot.

Whenever these bandits captured a city, they would tear down the city walls, burn the houses, dig deep into the ground, and run away after the battle. By the time the Ming army arrived to support them, these people had already escaped. People like Jiang Han, who occupied the city and started to develop themselves, were really eye-opening.

The literati were all spineless. In their opinion, it would be best to use money to win over and compensate the bandits, but the military generals obviously held different opinions. In this way, it would cost money to eliminate the bandits, compensate them, and rebuild the local area. The court officials managed to get two more pieces of silver from Chongzhen in order to kill three birds with one stone.

Gradually, the Ming Dynasty's finances were dragged down. It was a dream to ask the literati to donate money. Chongzhen solicited funds several times, but these people pretended to be poorer than each other. Some even went to the streets to sell their furniture, which embarrassed Chongzhen. As a result, the court's taxes could only continue to be apportioned to the farmers who had not yet fled the famine, forming a vicious circle. Taxes became heavier and heavier, there were more and more rebels, and more and more silver was needed for various affairs, so taxes became even heavier.

Therefore, the bandits have been multiplying. In the first year of Chongzhen, there were only more than 10,000 of them in Shaanxi. Now, they have spread all over the country and number hundreds of thousands. After Li Zicheng makes a call, they will be even more powerful and sweep across the entire northern Ming Dynasty.

The bandits did not engage in production, they loved what they did and were only interested in robbing and doing business with no capital, so the national strength of the Ming Dynasty became increasingly weak.

There is a reason why the Ming Dynasty called these people bandits and roving bandits instead of rebels like Jiang Han. People like Jiang Han are obviously here to start a serious revolution. They are peasant uprisings who have occupied a place and are ready to compete with the Ming Dynasty. They appeased the people, improved people's livelihood, eliminated the powerful, and improved oppression. The people at the bottom of the society could really feel the changes in their lives, and even showed resistance when the court was about to quell the rebellion. But the roving bandits are just a bunch of robbers and thieves, and they don't deserve to be called peasant armies and righteous armies.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Chongzhen, during the Lantern Festival, bandits captured the Zhongdu Fengyang, killing tens of thousands of people in the city and burning more than 20,000 houses.

On the 24th day of the first lunar month of the same year, the bandits attacked Shucheng again, looted thousands of women from Huoshan and Luzhou, forced them to be naked under the city, and tortured them to death if they disobeyed.

After failing to capture Chuzhou, they captured hundreds of women from nearby villages, humiliated them collectively, and then chopped off their heads...

These people would kill people and massacre cities at will. Their cruelty was simply horrifying, even comparable to those of the Tartars who were willing to take on the gods.

It was not until the 13th year of Chongzhen that Li Zicheng began to think about conquering the world. He shouted slogans such as "equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes" and "killing one person is like killing my father, raping one person is like raping my mother" to win the hearts of the people. Only then did the bandits restrain their behavior a little.

But after taking Beijing, everything returned to normal.

Don't be fooled by his loud slogans. In fact, after he really took over a place, he used every possible means to torture people. And his torture means literally, in the physical sense, the kind that tortures people until they are sizzling and oozing with oil.

Li Zicheng is considered the best among the bandits, not to mention the others.

Jiang Han would naturally not allow such hidden dangers to exist within the area under his jurisdiction, but what he did not expect was that after hearing the news that he had occupied Yangzhou City, these bandits not only did not move away, but instead moved closer.

Ever since King Gao Yingxiang was skinned alive by the imperial court, the bandits have become much more cautious in their actions. They usually hide in the mountains, occasionally coming out to harm the people or suddenly strike a severe blow to the Ming army.

Now that they heard that a group of troops had actually taken Yangzhou, these bandits came over like sharks smelling blood.

Yangzhou is a famous wealthy place in the south of the Yangtze River. There are wealthy families and businessmen everywhere. In their opinion, Jiang Han has just conquered Yangzhou and has not yet established a firm foothold. The situation in Yangzhou must be chaotic. As long as they join in, they will surely get a share of the spoils. If they can take Yangzhou from Jiang Han, their reputation among the rebels will surely be at its peak!

This time, they want money, and they also want fame!

"We have arrived at the designated combat position and started the combat plan."

A figure in white stood on the hillside, watching the people in the sight walking in the corridor. They were holding tattered flags, wearing rags and cotton jackets, and breathing heavily as they walked. The identities of these people were naturally self-evident.

"Wait a moment, the heavy troops and cavalry will be in place soon"

"Good commander"

The beacon on the human-shaped head shone brightly under the sunlight. She stared at these still careless bandits, as if she were looking at dead people.

"Zhao Keman Hu Ying..."

Volume 200: Chapter Chapter : So satisfying!

"Tell me, how many good things can we steal in Yangzhou?"

In the valley, the bandits were laughing and fighting, and everyone was looking forward to the upcoming trip to Yangzhou.

They had been traveling for a long time and now needed to set up camp to rest for a while. The place where they set up camp was a village. The people in the village had heard that the bandits were coming a long time ago and had packed up their belongings and fled long ago. The bandits were still not satisfied and rummaged through every house, knocked down everyone's houses, and only then did they contentedly set up camp to rest.

It is no exaggeration to say that when this group of people entered the village, every dog ​​passing by would be slapped twice.

The bandits had little discipline and would randomly disperse in groups of several or dozens, chatting and playing, spending money on drinking, quarreling and wrestling, making a lot of noise.

They had not eaten meat for a long time and were eager to enjoy a good meal after entering Yangzhou.

Several generals wearing felt hats lit a charcoal fire, formed a circle, and took out wine and meat to eat and drink together.